It's been a hard week. I've got customer issues piling up on my desk, I've got overdue reports that have yet to be written, and I've got servers bouncing up and down somewhere halfway across the world.
As some means of compensation for this, I've traditionally kept a little something in the office pantry. At some point in time, it involved bowls of Cup Noodles. For a few days it had something to do with packets of junk food. And, most recently, it's been sugar-free softdrinks. Because we don't have Coke Zero around here yet, we have to make do with such things as Pepsi MAX.
Except that somebody has been stealing mine lately, and I have no idea who.
I stockpile my bottles in the office refrigerator, and although it does get cleaned out every weekend, it's a safe bet that nobody's about to throw out any brand-new bottles of Pepsi. Besides, I picked up my last batch just this Monday, and by Wednesday morning another bottle was missing.
Isn't there some unspoken moral code that exists in every office environment? Something like, don't touch other peoples' refrigerated stuff? I feel violated, somehow... if somebody's likely to just up and grab my softdrinks whenever I'm not looking (and I'm busy enough nowadays for that to be the case), then just how am I supposed to feel?
Part of me now wonders why I should even bother buying more bottles. It's a long walk to the nearest 7-11 here, and I don't want to spend too much time outside work. The more I dilly-dally, the louder my clients get.
The meaner side of me is debating the possibility of spiking my Pepsi somehow. But I'm not that evil, regardless of what some people might think.
In the meantime, I've got the bottles in my personal office cabinet right now. Hopefully I don't get stuck with a leaky bottle sometime, and hopefully no one will think to steal the ice cubes out from under my nose...
8 comments:
Maybe it'll help if you put your name on the bottles? (Although that would make you look like a possessive cheapskate :P)
Oh, and I think the answer to "Isn't there some unspoken moral code that exists in every office environment?" is that yes, there's an unspoken moral code, however, in every office environment, unfortunately, there are always people who don't give a crap about moral codes. That sort of thing happens in our office too. (It happened to my piece of chocolate cake once. T_T)
I guess there's no way around it. *sigh*
Ida: Yes, I felt that putting my name on the bottles would be a little too possessive. That, and I don't want to spend my time labeling stuff that I'm bound to consume after a few days.
I suppose I could understand it when people filch drinks out from under my nose, but a whole slice of chocolate cake? How in the world did the guy expect nobody to notice that?
I did consider investing in a personal container, though. People are probably far less likely to grab something that's not a familiar commercial package. It would also require only a one-time nametag investment, which is good. I'm pretty sure that my boss would then complain about my finicky tendencies, though...
Bringing your own container could really work. And I don't think it's finicky at all. What's yours is yours. Hmm... I'll make sure to put my desserts in opaque tupperware next time. Thanks a lot! :)
Sean: I imagine that it would be effective... unless someone decides to steal the container. :)
Hehehe, did you realize you just addressed your reply to yourself? Or was that intentional? :P
Ida: I... er... yeah, I meant to do that. Yeah, that's it.
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...geez, I need to get some sleep. :(
I had a similar problem, but i stocked up on those big litro sized cokes. I suddenly noticed that the contents would slowly go down without me drinking more than two glasses or so. The next time i opened a bottle and had my share, i popped in a few sleeping pills (yes, i can be that odious)and two admin ladies were dozing off and drowsy later in the afternoon. Looks like i caught my coke robbers
Anton: Ooooh... creative. It's fairly easy to find sleepy people on any random afternoon at my office, though (me included), so it wouldn't work on my end.
Somehow I'm reminded of that Dilbert comic strip where Dogbert laces someone's lunch bag with artificial female hormones. ("You were in the basement with Willy the Mailboy all day. You are innocent... sort of.")
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